Shattered Skies – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the metal band, Shattered Skies, shares what they do before every show. You can check out their ritual, after the break.

Our pre-show ritual consists of a fair bit of warming up. Sean tends to find a quiet space, and do his vocal warm-ups. He has a warm-up thing on his phone that he listens to and sings along with, which gets him ready for the show, as obviously our music is quite vocally demanding and not something you can just walk straight on stage and do!

Ross will have his practise pad out and will be warming up with some sticks, getting all the rudiments and paradiddles and so on ready. Myself (Ian) and Jim will have our guitar & bass out and be practising some of the tougher licks of the night, and generally warming up. Our music is quite demanding technically, and very rhythmically precise so you really need to walk on stage nice and loose and confident.

A crucial thing is, while our music is obviously technical and some people come to see us playing, we don’t want to be fretboard-watchers, rooted to the spot. So we get our playing up to a level where we can bash out these difficult songs with enough confidence that we can get out there, move around, get the crowd going, headbang, do some interplay, and let out as much energy as these songs make us want to let out. It’s all about balancing the technical accuracy with the ‘show’ and ‘performance’ aspects.

Other than that, we might have a beer or two to loosen up, do a bit of stretching, and then it’s out on stage to give it everything we’ve got!

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Check out their video for their new song, As The Sea Divides.

Did you enjoy this Preshow Rituals segment? Do you think any of these tips will be useful while touring? Let us know in the comments below!